  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 02/01/2009 *Starred Review* In Chicago in 1968, Sam, 14, obeys his father, an eloquent civil-rights leader who is close with Dr. King and is passionately committed to nonviolent protest. But after King is assassinated and Sam witnesses police brutality toward a friend, Sam follows his rebellious older brother, Stephen (Stick), and joins the Black Panthers, whose revolutionary platform is the opposite of the nonviolent philosophy that Sam has been taught at home. Then Sam’s father is stabbed. Will the brothers retaliate with violence? True to the young teen’s viewpoint, this taut, eloquent first novel will make readers feel what it was like to be young, black, and militant 40 years ago, including the seething fury and desperation over the daily discrimination that drove the oppressed to fight back. Sam’s middle-class family is loving and loyal, even when their quarrels are intense; and Magoon draws the characters without sentimentality. Along with the family drama, the politics will grab readers, especially the Panthers’ politicaleducation classes and their call for land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace. A long author’s note fills in background in this important title for YA American history classes. - Copyright 2009 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 03/01/2009 Sam and his brother Stick have grown up in a culture of civil rights activism; their father has stood by Dr. King’s side on more than one occasion, and Dr. King has had dinner in their Chicago home. Still, Sam tires of the endless rallies, but when he and Stick attempt to sneak away from a demonstration, Stick gets hurt in a fight on the edges of the crowd, and things start to change. Stick becomes interested in the newly formed Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Sam finds a gun hidden in their bedroom. Violence is not their father’s way, and he kicks Stick out while encouraging Sam to become more active in helping him with his community organizing. Sam, meanwhile, is torn between the two approaches-one that seems too patient and ineffective, and one that seems too militant and violent. When Dr. King is killed and a friend of Sam’s is hounded by police to tragic effect, Sam understands that he must find his own way, albeit within the Panther organization. Though this picture of the Black Panthers, filtered through Sam and Stick in 1968, offers no acknowledgment of the controversies about the group, it’s a dramatic examination of a dramatic time and struggle. The story is reminiscent of the Colliers’ My Brother Sam Is Dead in its exploration of two distinct ideologies that break at generational lines, with a boy at the center having to find his own path; readers will be intrigued by this recent history that again put young people on the front lines. An author’s note, similarly focused on the positives about the Black Panther Party, provides more historical details. KC - Copyright 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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